Christmas Cookies

Well, the task of making Christmas cookies is done.  Last night around dinner time, the last few cookies were frosted and laid out to dry a bit before packaging them.  Nate delivered some to our neighbors, pastor and friend Gilbo.  The kids were happy to play with all the left-over dough scraps.  I have a plate of plain cookies left for them to frost and decorate today.  Christmas cookies are a bit of work, but its worth it for this special time of year.

Nate was a huge help to me yesterday.  He tackled a mountain of other tasks and errands so that I could make all the cookies and rest a bit throughout the day.  He went to the post office, recycling center, the grocery store two times, delivered cookies, sorted through old Christmas decorations and took everything we wanted to donate to St. Vincent's.  He then ran a grabbed us some pizza.  We enjoyed a picnic style dinner on the floor since the dining room table was covered with frosted cookies!  What a man!  His hard work was rewarded with an evening spent with some friends, after he helped get the kids to bed.  Thank you, honey!  I couldn't have done it without you!

Well, I better return to the kitchen.  I have bagel dough that is ready to be shaped.  After that I just have one more thing to cook for Christmas dinner and I am pretty much done for the next few days!  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

What It Looks Like

....in a traditional foods kitchen.

(from left to right)

yogurt fermenting in the cooler, sauerkraut fermenting in the crock, walnuts and almonds soaking for 12 hrs and waiting to be dehydrated, and lastly, filtered water.

Fortunately this picture is taken a while back.  Now my counter top is clear, ready for all the holiday food preparation.  For the next week or so I will be moving on to less healthy things like making Christmas sugar cookies, bagels and maybe even some gingerbread men!

What will you be preparing this next week?

All Aboard!

...the pillow train.

Pajamas and Art Books

This fall I purchased some art books for our home school, but haven't yet started to incorporate them into our daily work.  The kids love to grab them every now and then and draw (or attempt to draw) the pictures and lessons in them.  It's so much fun to see how they draw.  It's amazing to me the shapes and details that they are able to interpret just by their own observances.

First Snow

The kids were pretty excited when we finally got our first bit of snow.  They sledded and rolled around in the snow until it turned into mud.  Their snow pants, coats and mittens had to be rinsed thoroughly before being washed to get all the dirt off of them!

Puzzle Fun

Julius' New Bed

Julius was sleeping, until recently, in a little toddler bed.  When he wasn't in that, you could find him on our floor.  Nate put together his new bed right before Thanksgiving.  He was excited, but was still coming to sleep on our floor part way through the night.  But, we noticed that over the past few weeks he was staying in his own bed longer and longer through the night.  This past week he has stayed in his own bed all night long!  We are so excited!  I pray that this continues, as he and Nate and I sleep much better without lots of middle of the night drama.  This bed is so cute and it even has two drawers underneath which will come in handy in a few months when we need to make extra drawer space for the new baby!

What's This?

I came into the living room the other day to find this.  Layla and Julius reading in train formation and a very tired Gunnar playing with Julius' hair.  Weird.

24 Week Belly Pic

Well, I can't believe it's already been 24 weeks.  Between being a mother of three and the fast approaching holiday season, I have been quite distracted from mentally dwelling on this pregnancy.  It's so funny to compare it with my first pregnancy that seemed to occupy my mind 24 hours a day.  With each additional child there was less time to devote such endless mental devotion.  That might sound a bit insincere, but it comes as a relief to me.  Pregnancy is a long process, and I welcome distractions that make the time pass by more quickly, especially because I know the last month or two goes by the slowest.  By then I will be too big and uncomfortable to ignore the obvious and approaching labor will start to weigh heavier on my mind.  So for now I enjoy the days that I often forget I am pregnant.

Sunday morning my fingers were so swollen that I barely jammed on my wedding rings.  "Time to get out the fake ring" Nate exclaimed!  Yes, I have a fake wedding ring for such an occasion.  With my first pregnancy I became allergic to my wedding ring and bought an cheapy fake to take its place.  With my last two pregnancies, I have just needed to bump up a few ring sizes and the fake ring came in handy once again.  So it looks like now I might be ready for it, but I will continue to try and get my real ring on for as long as I can!

Visiting Santa and Mrs. Clause

Due to Julius and Gunnar fearing kidnapping or other foul play, this year's Santa picture became a, ehem, family affair.  Other than that, everyone enjoyed their time spent at this winter wonderland.

One Last Hurrah

It's strange to think that the week of Thanksgiving the kids could be outside playing in the mud puddles.  It warmed up to 65 degrees and the kids begged to jump in the puddles.  I consented and they had a blast.  Just a few days later we were having snow flurries dust our yard.  Gotta love crazy Midwestern weather!

It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

A glance at the mayhem of this weekend.  Regular clothing sorting was done, but costumes, winter coats and boots needed some better organizing.

As you can see, after 5 1/2 years and three kids, we have a massive shoe problem on our hands.  I used to try and store them all loose in a large bin, but that was madness!  I divided them up between boy and girl shoes, then I separated them by sizes and stored them in grocery bags with labels stapled on.  Much better.

 As if it wasn't crowded enough, we decided to sort through boxes of books at the same time.

 Finished bins waiting to be carried to the basement. Oh, and a puke bowl near by (just in case:)!

Nate's mother had saved some of his clothes from his childhood.  As I was sorting through those, I found this beauty of a swimsuit!  God Bless America!

Yesterday we took all the donated clothes to St. Vincent's and Nate took the empty book boxes to the basement.  Slowly but surely, I can see more and more of my kitchen and backroom floor!  Yeah!

Overcoming Craziness

Man, am I happy that last Tuesday I uploaded photos and scheduled a few blog posts for the week!  Tuesday and Wednesday were filled with laundry, schoolwork and trying to keep a sick boy resting on the couch.  By Wednesday night I was puking.  In the wee hours of Thursday morning, Nate came down with the yucky goodness, too.  We were both so weak and miserable Thursday, that we asked our pastor to bring over some bread, fruit and gatorade, since we were too sick to get to a store ourselves.  He kindly helped us out with our request (Thanks Pastor Jeremy!).  By Thursday evening, both Gunnar and Layla were sick too.  By Friday morning I had more puked on towels, sheets, pillows and blankets than I knew what to do with, on top of two overflowing hampers of dirty clothes.  If I had never scheduled posts to appear throughout the week, it would have been a bit quiet and boring on this blog (not that it isn't anyway) as I never graced the computer for days.

So the weekend was filled with more laundry and I returned to my never ending tasks of sorting stored clothing bins.  Nate graciously got out 6 boxes of books that were packed away while our house was on the market.  We filled a few boxes with books to donate and the kids were in heaven having access to all their old books.  We pretty much survived on toast, peanut butter, fruit and oatmeal for the remainder of the weekend, as our stomach could not handle much beyond these foods.

Today I am still finishing up the last load of puky blankets and pillows.  All the clothing bins have been returned to the basement, and all that remains are a few bins of baby girl bedding and blankets.  I see a light at the end of the tunnel.  It has been a lot of work, but I know I will appreciate it as I access clothes in years to come for the new baby.  I better get off the computer, as it was probably a bit unwise to even use some of this time to write a blog post!  Yikes!  Have a good day!

Paper Bag Town

The kids made this paper bag town a few weeks back.  The cut-outs came with one of their magazines.  Gunnar was being a little rough with them, so we made him his own store to play with.  Fun times!